I Knew You'd Be Lovely - Short Stories by Alethea Black ...

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Alethea Black?s deeply moving and wholly original debut features a coterie of memorable characters who have reached emotional crossroads in their lives. Brimming with humor, irony, and insights about the unpredictable nature of life, the unbearable beauty of fate, and the power that one moment, or one decision, can have to transform us, I Knew You?d Be Lovely delivers that rare thing?stories with both an edge and a heart.

Editorial Reviews

?There?s a touch of Lorrie Moore in Alethea Black?s stories, but the voice is all her own.? Black writes about love, yes, but she also writes about solitude?its travails and its pleasures?with a winning combination of insight and charm.??I Knew You?d Be Lovely is a terrific debut.? ? Joshua Henkin, author of?Matrimony

?Alethea Black can drop you into a dream with a single sentence, then convince you it?s real. Her characters? best hopes and worst fears usually come to pass, often in fabulous ways, but their adventures feel inevitable and true?not only because Ms. Black richly imagines her people, but because she loves them.?I Knew You?d Be Lovely is a lovely debut, with masterful prose and inspired invention on every page.?
?Ralph Lombreglia, author of?Men Under Water

??With humor, honesty and wary hope, Alethea Black?s stories capture the pain and power of loving fully?and celebrate life?s small astonishments amid our shared human search for the divine. ?I KNEW YOU?D BE LOVELY is thoughtful, entertaining and, ultimately, powerful.? ? Daphne Kalotay, author of?Russian Winter

Review

In high school and college English majors are often made to read the short story. I am grateful for this fact. ?Parker?s Back? by O?Conner, Faulkner?s ?Barn Burnings? and Miss Emily?s Rose? are examples of the vignette medium that powerfully moved me. But, as a whole, for the past 50 years, I have mainly read novels, selfishly demanding more; more experience.; more in-depth character study; more profound connection. Alethea Black, the author of ?I Knew You Would Be Lovely? brought me back to the pleasure of condensed brilliance. Thirteen vignettes of life are proffered in this short story collection; multiple insights into relationships with oneself, with friends, with family and with one?s truths left me deeply stirred.

Of course I had my favorites?.?Mollusks Make A Comeback.? Katie, a woman afraid to try for more spoke solemnly through humor and jarred an ?aha moment? so profound in me I am still shaking. What more can you demand of a story? Other favorites?.?Someday is Today,? ?The Summer Before? and ?Good In A Crisis? All thirteen invoked emotions and understanding I didn?t know myself capable of. What more can be asked of a well crafted tale?

Alethea Black talent lies in her balance, intuitiveness, tenderness, sarcastic wit, shock value, humor and compassion. How could I ask anything more from a genius wordsmith?

Read at your own risk knowing par writing will most probably not be enough for you again. When you read extraordinary it is hard to lower that bar back down.

Thanks, Ms. Black, for insights and inspirations into your stories conceptions and birth.

In homage to ?We?ve Got a Great Future Behind? us I simply sing, ?it?s close enough to perfect for me.? ? Gayla M. Collins, Amazon.Com Customer Review

Collection marks the dangers in life?s twists and turns

The Boston Globe Book Review ? July 8, 2011 (Excerpt)

Alethea Black?s sly and emotionally complex debut collection, ?I Knew You?d Be Lovely,?? shows us men and women, young and not-so-young, who suddenly find themselves in danger.

For the most part, this danger is some looming emotional or psychological hurdle. But sometimes, as in the best story, ?The Only Way Out Is Through,?? there?s an actual gun. Out of desperation, a middle-aged dad takes his delinquent teenage son on a camping trip. Black?s description of the son resists clich?: ?Derek had no nose piercings, no Mohawk, no black eyeliner, no trench coat. His face was so nakedly defiant, it was as if he didn?t need the props.?? The dad, Fetterman, can?t help but see ominous signs everywhere, including a warning about rattlesnakes outside a gas station restroom: ?An oddly placed reminder that there was no escaping danger, even during the most banal activities.?? When Derek finally produces the pistol, Fetterman is forced to get honest with his son, and when it is fired (and not in the way the reader thinks it will be) it?s clear we?re in the hands of an author who privileges emotional resonance over gratuitous violence.

Black?s characters often struggle to find connection, to tease out the truth in a world that insists on convention. In ?The Laziest Form of Revelation,?? the narrator reflects on a doomed affair with a painter: ?[H]e taught me one thing I?ll never forget: We all desire the cut of truth.?? [Read the full article...]

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A Peeping Tom Goes Nuts Over A Blind Girl

Paul Kirk is a librarian and one of his town?s quirkier residents. ?In a childhood home lacking parents (his mother dying of MS and his father an alcoholic) Paul had imagined himself a member of the neighboring family. Now in his late twenties, Paul vicariously participates in the households of his community. His peeping-Tom proclivities express his awkward need for social bonding.

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Source: http://frogenyozurt.com/2011/07/i-knew-youd-be-lovely-short-stories-by-alethea-black/

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